Pasta and wine; A perfect combination

This was a night that I was so looking forward to — a carbohydrate-loaded dinner, something people generally avoid. It was a dinner at La Vie en Rose in Poblacion, Makati, that was to highlight the pasta of Noodle Lab and the wine of Bastardô! by Wine with Spirit.

Three friendly faces greet guests upon entry: Noodle Lab’s Ally Lim-Gonzales, La Vie en Rose’s Ash Rye, and Bastardô! by Wine with Spirit’s Camila Lhuillier-Albani.

Cocktails were served in this cozy place that totally doesn’t feel or look like Manila.

Lim-Gonzales and her team prepared all four pasta dishes as Lhuillier-Albani paired the dishes with the wine. The first course was a Tortelloni, a larger, stuffed tortellini. This was a beautifully striped squid ink tortelloni filled with local blue swimming crab (alimasag), ricotta, lemon, and parsley in a Nduja (a spreadable Cantabrian pork sausage) cream sauce paired with “Seafood & Co” vinho verde wine.

This was followed by the Bastardô! mafaldine al burro e formaggio, so named since the mafaldine (a type of long, ribbon-shaped pasta) was made using Bastardô! wine mixed in an emulsified sauce of Grana Padano and Pecorino Romano cheese then topped with brown butter dashi and shimeji mushrooms. This was obviously paired with “Bastardô!” red wine.

Third course was the 60-layer lasagna. That’s 12 layers each of the pasta sheets, ragu (Italian meat-based sauce), Béchamel, and two types of cheese: 24-month aged Parmigiano Reggiano and mozzarella! This is then sliced and torched to give the lasagna a bit of texture and bite. This was paired with Bread and Cheese Red Wine.

The final course was the Raviolo al uovo cacio e pepe, a huge cacio e pepe (cheese and pepper) ravioli with a runny egg yolk at the center served with seared Australian Wagyu ribeye and paired with “Dine with Me Tonight” red wine.

The four delicious pasta dishes were perfectly sized for diners to have a delicious tiramisu prepared by La Vie en Rose. This was paired with “Basta!” Brut white sparkling wine.

It was a wonderful wine-pairing dinner, which I hope will happen more often.

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La Vie En Rose is a private events place that can be booked through Instagram at @lavieenrose_mnl. Get